Anyone fish catfish on the Mississippi around the Trempelau (sp?)area? I was thinking about giving it a try in the evening just to see what's down there. Cut bait for channels...I'm guessing and what do you use for flatheads?

All things being equal and available...fresh (not frozen) cut mooneye for channel cat, live bullheads and chubs for flathead. Big channel cat prefer live or fresh cut bait--save the liver, stink bait, ivory soap, and all that for the eating size channel cats.

Live suckers, wild or from the baitshop, will catch flathead and big channels if you can't get bullheads or chubs. I have never had much luck for channels or flats with cut sucker. Fresh smashed chubs, on the other hand, work alright for me.

I prefer catching my own live bait, including creek chubs, bullheads, and suckers. It's a little more work, but wild bait is usually tougher and works better if you take proper care of it.

If you are a Wisconsin resident, and hold a Wisconsin license, I *think* you may have a few more live bait options for the Mississippi than we Minnesota residents do. Check Wisconsin's regulations to be sure if this is the case.

If Wisconsin residents can use live sunfish as bait, they work well, too. In Iowa it is legal to use live sunfish, and I have had good results with small green sunfish and bluegills.

thanks 'eyehunter.....I'm guessing we'll be able to come up with some fresh chubs out of local creeks....but that's probably it.

From the shows I've watched namely In-Fisherman Critical Concepts...I had planned on cutting up the chubs and going that route.

We'll be fishing out of Winona so I'm not sure of the reg's as far as using sunnies....it's border water so who knows. We'll probably just use chubs to be safe. Barrell sinker on the bottom and hang on?

eyehunter, I think if you are a Mn resident bullheads are illegal, unless the river is different? I know inland waters they are. Grew up in bullhead country out west and the old timers used to use them for walleyes until the wardens started checking them... could be different on the river though...
The guys from Iowa would wonder why you aren't eating those bullheads as well.. Ha Ha!

Bullheads are legal to use anywhere in Minnesota for bait, as long as they are under 7".

Yes, the bullhead rule in Minnesota was changed just a couple years ago. Now we can use them as bait. They work very well on flathead--never tried them on walleye.

I got a 26.5" walleye on a bullie while flattie fishing a couple of weeks ago!

Mattie, are you sure it wasn't a 26.5" sheephead? Ha ha!

Thanks to the rest for the update on the bullhead law, I hadn't seen that change. I am sure the old timers back home are happy!

Nice work! Got one just like that a little while back...
Emailed the DNR on the bullhead thing and this is the response I got from them...

No over 7 inches they are legal, (page 3 of the fishing regs) but totrap them, they must be used in the body of water they are trapped in ifthey come from an infested species waters that are listed on pages 16and 17. If taken from non-infested waters, they can be transported andused elsewhere. The regs for minnow trapping are on page 70. Kevin

I made my first night-fishing trip for flathead near Winona this week. (I don't make it back there much in the summer.)

I got a 24" flathead and a very ugly 25" channel cat between 9:00 and 10:00 PM. Both of those came on a crawler blob, althogh I had a missed run on a chub about then as well.

I thought at 10:00 PM I was in for a good night, but those two fish were it. I stayed until 2:00 AM and called it a night. If I had stayed out until 4:00 AM I think I would have had some more action between then and sunrise, but I was tired of just sitting there, and had other things to do the next day.